Eve of Darkness (6 page)

“What do you want, Robert?” she asked wearily, loose bits of old asphalt crunching beneath her Vans. “I’ve had a long day and I really want to go home.”

Her ex leaned against the hood of his white ’67 Mustang, arms and legs crossed. He was arguably the most popular guy at Loara High and it was obvious why. A California blond with blue eyes, he had a great body from both surfing at dawn at Huntington Beach and afternoon football practice. But his looks hadn’t been enough to tempt to her out of her virginity.

At eighteen, she was the oldest girl she knew who still hadn’t had sex. Sometimes the peer pressure was fierce, but mostly she was fine with waiting for more than a quick, painful screw in the back of some guy’s car.

“I thought you might want a ride to Jason’s party,” he said with a half-smile.

Eve shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m not up for it tonight.”

Her uniform of bright red shorts and a white polo shirt with “Henry’s Ice Cream” embroidered on the breast was irritating her. She wanted nothing more than to toss it in the hamper and watch the latest episode of
90210
in a pair of baggy sweats.

“I’ve got a cooler in the car and a dime bag,” he coaxed. “We can skip the party and drive out to the tracks.”

“Give it a rest.” She started walking. “I’m not doing it, okay? You broke up with me and told everyone I’m a bad lay. Everyone thinks I put out. We’re done.”

Leaping to his feet, Robert stepped into her path. “Come on, Evie. I know you’re scared, but I’ll make it good for you. Other people are starting to talk about how cold you are. Your rep as a hottie is slipping, baby.”

“Whatever. Like I care.”

His voice lowered and became cajoling. He gripped her upper arms, and rubbed up and down. “A couple beers and a joint, and you’ll be nice and relaxed when I pop your cherry. You don’t want to be a damn virgin forever.”

She opened her mouth to take him down a notch.

“Who said she’s still a virgin?”

Eve quivered at the sound of the deep rumbling voice. She knew it was
him.
Hell on wheels.

“Who the fuck are you?” Robert challenged, pushing Eve to the side.

The sudden illumination of the Harley’s headlight gave away his position. “You ready to go, angel?”

The nickname startled her and she hesitated. Then one foot stepped in front of the other. The next thing Eve knew, a helmet was in her hands. She pulled it on quickly, her body instantly reacting to the exotic male scent that permeated the inside of the protective gear. Her nipples peaked hard and tight, her breathing altered.

She wanted him. Like she’d never wanted anything or anybody in her life. All the raging teenage hormones in her body went haywire around him. She’d had heavy petting sessions that hadn’t made her this hot, and all she’d done was smell him.

“This is bullshit, Eve,” Robert snapped. “We dated for months. You owe me.”

Eve flipped him the bird and climbed onto the back of the bike, her arms wrapping around her mystery guy’s lean middle. He smelled spicy. Exotic. Delicious. She pressed her nose to his back and breathed him in. Unable to fight the temptation, she stroked her fingertips over his six-pack abs, shivering when tingles spread up her arms and pooled in her breasts, making them swell and ache.

His hand slapped over hers, halting her explorations.

“Hang on,” he growled.

The hog rumbled to life and they roared off into the night.

 
Eve jerked to consciousness.

Desire burned through her veins. She writhed in torment, her head tossing, her limbs flailing, her breasts swollen with the need to be touched and caressed.

The scent of lavender and vanilla filled her nostrils. Reality hit her hard enough to force the breath from her lungs.

Her fabric softener. She turned her head and breathed in the smell. Clean sheets.

She was home. Alone. It had all been a dream.

“Alec . . . ?” She thrashed, her skin so hot and tight she felt as if it might split open.

Her nipples were hard and aching again, but now the flesh between her legs was plump and slick, the brand on her arm burning. Throbbing.

“Alec!” she cried again, with all the strength of a mewling kitten. Her mouth felt as if it were filled with cotton. Her body quaked with hunger and unable to do otherwise, she spread her legs wide and thrust her hand into the damp curls between her thighs. She’d never been so aroused in her life; the need for sex was more powerful than her need to breathe. Her other hand cupped a swollen breast, squeezing it, praying for relief from her sensual anguish and the goddamn heat. She felt like she was melting from the inside out.

Through her panting breaths she heard the padding of bare feet upon her hardwood floors. The steady, confident stride was familiar and deeply comforting.

Closer. Closer.

The footsteps stopped abruptly in her bedroom doorway.

“Alec.” Her fingers parted the tender folds of her sex, exposing her burning flesh to the fan’s soft breeze.

“Christ,” he whispered, his voice a deep lustful rasp. “Have mercy.”

She moved sinuously upon the cool satin sheets of her bed. Were they purple? Or would he be sentimental and choose the white? Much as she wanted to open her eyes and see, she couldn’t find the strength to lift her heavy lids.

“Alec.” She pushed two fingers inside her, but it wasn’t enough to fill the emptiness. She was soaked, desperate. “What’s happening to me?”

Her words left her on a sob, hot tears leaking out from the corners of her closed eyes. Her body was no longer her own; the sexual hunger was an alien force, clawing and biting her in its quest for freedom.

Alec. It wanted Alec. And after a decade of starving, it wasn’t willing to wait a moment longer to have him.

His breath hissed out between clenched teeth. She heard him step toward her, then the bed dipped slightly as he sat. His hot, open mouth pressed against her calf. “I knew what the Change would do to you.”

As his tongue dipped behind her knee, her free hand left her breast and slid into his hair.

His teeth nipped at her inner thigh and she gasped in surprise. “But I didn’t know what it would do to
me
.”

Grasping her pumping wrist, he stilled her movements and pulled her hand free. She cried out when she felt his tongue licking her fingers, a rough sound of pure male satisfaction filling the air as he tasted her desire. Warm, wet heat engulfed her to the knuckles, then he was sucking in long deep pulls until there was nothing left to consume.

“Damn it.” He lunged for the pulsing flesh between her legs, covering it with his open mouth. Eve jerked violently, her senses overloaded with the feel and smell of him. Her heart raced at his nearness and the growling sounds he made as his tongue flicked desperately. Her knees bent and her feet pushed into the mattress, lifting her hips. He rumbled a warning and pinned her down with his large hands. “Stay still.”

He held her open with his fingers, nuzzling his lips against her, his hair sweeping across the sensitive skin of her thighs.

She struggled against his hold, but he was too strong and she was too weak.
“Please . . .”

Alec tilted his head and pushed his tongue through the spasming muscles, the rough texture both soothing and abrading the sensitive tissues. She keened softly at the teasing fullness, nowhere near as thick and long as she needed, but wonderful nevertheless. In and out. Piercing her hard and fast. His groans were animalistic, base and raw, as if he’d gone too long without having her this way. As if he’d missed it.

“Not enough,” she breathed, twisting and arching, burning up. Losing her sanity. “It’s not
enough
.”

Alec’s mouth surrounded her, gently suckling. His tongue fluttered in a wicked back-and-forth tease.

As she climaxed hard, she cried out, her legs trembling. The relief was so intense she couldn’t catch her breath, every follicle and nerve ending prickling with acute, near-painful pleasure. His lips closed, pressed a soft kiss against her, and then opened again. His approach gentled, and he licked her in a patient, loving rhythm.

Eve reached for his shoulders and found his warm skin covered in soft cotton. She tugged ineffectually at the material. “Naked.”

Alec pushed up and the mattress jerked with his violent movements, then he was coming over her. Bare skin to bare skin. He caught her wrists in one hand and pulled them gently over her head.

She found the strength to open her gritty eyes. Dark hair fell around his flushed face. His brown irises were swallowed by his dilated pupils, roiling with violent need.

He pressed his cheek to hers. “Don’t hate me for what’s happening to you.”

Kneeing her legs open, he pushed inside her. A violent shudder coursed the length of his frame. “Angel . . . You’re burning me up.”

He was so long and hard, built for a woman’s plea sure. She knew he would fill her completely, the stretching sensation incredible and addicting.

“Deeper,” she coaxed, raising her hips.

The instant he sank to the end of her, the pain eased, leaving only drugging, drowning plea sure behind.

He murmured hoarse praise, clutching her close, beginning to move.

She sobbed, her fever breaking, sweat dripping from every pore and soaking her hair. The bed. Him.

His powerful thighs flexed against hers as he kept her pinned and rode her skillfully. Slow. Rolling his hips. She watched him with heavy lidded eyes, watched him watch her as he pumped into her, his abdomen flexing and rippling with his thrusts. Watched his eyes burn as she writhed and whimpered his name.

Alec was inexhaustible. He would climax with a clenched jaw and deep, stifled groans, but he never softened completely. Her keening cries as she came made him hard again. She could feel him thicken inside her as he rocked in and out. Ready for more.

No other man could compete. He’d ruined her from the very first. No one touched her the way he did. No one looked at her the way he did, studying every nuance of her response and adjusting his movements so she kept coming. And coming. No one had that wickedly dark voice that goaded her. Whispering how she felt to him, how she pleased him, how much he loved to be inside her.

They had sex for hours, moments melding into each other, Alec thrusting between her spread thighs in that lazy, sensual rhythm that said,
Feel that? Feel me? I’m
in
you. Inside you.

The room grew dark as the sun set.

Sick as she’d been, she shouldn’t have been able to take him, but she grew stronger with every moment that passed, the dull throb of the burn on her arm pumping a wild, edgy power through her veins until she was abandoned. Scratching at his back, biting his neck, spurring him on with her heels in his flexing ass.

Through sheer mulish determination, Eve broke through Alec’s steely control, grabbed him by the throat and balls, and rocked his world. As she pleasured him ruthlessly, his guttural cries filled the room, swelling up through the vaulted ceiling of her condominium.

“Getting ready to leave again?” she asked harshly, clinging to his straining, sweat-slicked body with arms made powerful by the energy inside her. “Storing up future memories?”

He grunted and licked the side of her face. “Making up for lost time. You’ll cover the future in daily installments.”

“You wish.” She nipped his ear with sharp teeth, making him curse. “Enjoy the ride while it lasts.”

His head lifted, revealing glowing eyes that sent violent shivers down her spine. Resting one hand on the mattress, he drove powerfully into her. Eve was so focused on the pounding of his hips against hers and the impending orgasm that she failed to register the danger until it was too late.

Alec lifted his free hand, revealing the white-hot image of an eye in the center of his palm.

“Oh, hell no!” She shoved at his shoulders.

“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm—”

He gripped her branded deltoid and burned her anew.

Eve bit out a curse and belted him square in the jaw.

Eve frowned as the Harley rounded the corner of her street and pulled over to the curb several houses up from her own. Her dad would be dozing on the couch now, her mother upstairs in bed reading a romance novel, and her little sister chatting on her private phone line instead of sleeping. It was home and she loved it, but she didn’t want to go there now. The thought of being separated from the man in front of her made her feel panicky.

“Did we have to come here right away?” she asked, regretting answering honestly when he’d asked for directions.

As he turned off the engine, she laced her fingers together to keep him close. He was so warm, so solid, so big. Nothing like the boys she went to school with.

He gently pried her fingers open. “Yes, it’s better for you, angel.”